On the Feast of St Blaise--Living the Liturgical Year

Thank you all for being patient as I inconsistently blog. I have been so busy cleaning out my childhood home. It has left me exhausted both physically and emotionally.

Today is the Feast of St Blaise. As happens many years, icy roads and sniffly children has kept us from attending our parish' s blessing of the throats.  This feast is very special to our family, though. Not only is it the first traditional feast day that I introduced to my husband when he decided to convert, but it is also a namesake day of one of our children.

To make up for missing the blessing, again, I tied a red cord around two of the candles that my children made last Candlemas. I am going to have my husband bless each of our throats with the traditional blessing.

Through the intercession of Saint Blase, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from every disease of the throat and from every other illness:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Spirit.

Each person responds: Amen.

Since this is a name day for our family, I try to make a special dinner.  Here is a list of some feast related recipes:

This Double Raisin Bread Pudding  from Family Plus Food Equals Love is delicious!

Catholic Cuisine has a cute tutorial for candle inspired cookies, no baking required.

This Bubenshenkel (fried dough) sounds delightful!

None of these recipes work for our family, though, due to various food allergies. So, we are trying something different.  We will be having homemade, baked, gluten-free penne and white cheddar cheese. The penne represent the candles.  

I also read that it is common to have chicken soup, since what is better for a sore throat than chicken soup?  So, I will make a simple chicken and rice soup--organic chicken stock, frozen mixed vegetables, and brown rice. This will really help everyone with scratchy throats and runny noses. (Myself included)  I usually cook a chicken and make my own stock to turn into soup with fresh vegetables, but I'm not feeling that ambitious. ;)

For dessert, I am making Christine at Memories of a Catholic Mother's pumpkin bake. I am substituting a half cup of rice flour and a teaspoon of cornstarch for the flour, so that it is gluten free. I am going to also add some raisins, a traditional food for St Blaise, it will be our gluten-free version of bread pudding.  The pumpkin is roasting away in my crock pot, and I will use my new Ninja (a Christmas gift from my sister) to whip up the batter.  If you have never made your own pumpkin filling, you must! Simply buy a pumpkin small enough to fit in a slow cooker, the smaller ones are better for baking anyway.  Then, wash off the pumpkin, making sure to rinse very well, and place in crock pot without drying.  Cook on low until skin can easily be pierced by a table fork, usually about 6-8 hours. Once pumpkin is cooked, it is easy to split and the insides separate readily from the flesh.  Puree for extra smoothness. I often skip this step, it tastes just as good just a little stringier. An average sized sugar pumpkin yields enough to substitute for one can of pumpkin.

However you celebrate today, I hope that you are warm, safe, and well. God bless!